The world’s first wireless phone service

This is, in the words of the company, “a general-purpose instrument designed for measuring the burst signal, carrier frequency and pulse width required for the evaluation of a wide range of radio equipment, such as mobile terminals, base stations, radar, microwave repeaters and related devices.” What caught my eye, however, was not details about the “vacuum fluorescent display” or its replacement of the F2400B series… but information about the company itself, in the About Anritsu section of the press release: “Anritsu Corporation (www.anritsu.com) has been a provider of innovative communications solutions for more than 110 years, and now serves customers from offices around the world.” 110 years? Electronics? Many a company jostling for space in the electronics industry was formed in the “white-heat” of the 60s technology revolution, and even more in the comms bonanza of the Dot Com boom, but the 1890s? Of course, communications aren’t necessarily electronic communications, and there lies the answer – amid the history of telegraphy and early wireless broadcasts, but it pulled me up short! Was there another, alternative, parallel history of electronics? But it is quite interesting stuff. Check out the company history. For example, “1903 – Annaka Electric exhibited a wireless transmitter and a 30cm fireworks coil at the 5th Japan Industry Promotion Exposition” (the wireless transmitter is pictured, taken from the Anritsu site). See also: “1916 – Annaka began telegraph service between Toba, Toshijima and Kamijima in Mie Prefecture, using the TYK wireless phone. This was the world’s first wireless phone service”